Chapter Dogmatic School to Dominicans of D by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Dogmatic School to Dominicans

Dogmatic School of Medicine Founded by Hippocrates, and so called because it set out certain dogmas or theoretical principles which it made the basis of practice.

Dogmatic Theology is that which treats of the dogmata (doctrines) of religion.

Doiley (See Doyley .)

Doit (1 syl.). Not a doit. The doit was a Scotch silver coin = one-third of a farthing. In England the doit was a base coin of small value prohibited by 3 Henry V. c.1.

"When they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian." - Shakespeare: The Tempest, ii.2.

Dolabra A Roman axe.
   Dolabra fossoria. The pickaxe used by miners and excavators.
   Dolabra pontificalis. The priest's hatchet for slaughtering animals.

Dolce far Niente (Italian). Delightful idleness. Pliny has "Jucundum tamen nihil agere " (Ep. viii. 9).

Doldrums (The). The name given to that region of the ocean near the equator noted for calms, squalls, and baffling winds, between the N.E. and S.E. tradewinds.

"But from the bluff-head, where I watched to-day,
I saw her in the doldrums."
Byron: The Island, canto ii. stanza 21.

   In the doldrums. In the dumps.

Dole lamentation, from the Latin doleo, to grieve.

"He [the dwarf] found the dead bodies, wherefore he made great dole" - S. Lanier: King Arthur, book i. chap. xiv.

Dole a portion allotted, is the Anglo Saxon dál, a portion.

"Heaven has in store a precious dole."
Keble: Christian Year (4th Sunday after Trinity).

   Happy man be his dole. May his share or lot be that of a happy or fortunate man.

"Wherein, happy man be his dole, I trust that I
Shall not speed worst, and that very quickly."
Damon and Pythias, i. 177.

Dole-fish The share of fish allotted to each one of a company of fishermen in a catch. Dole = the part dealt to anyone. (Anglo-Saxon, dál or dæl, from the verb dael-an, to divide into parts.)

Doll Money A lady of Duxford left a sum of money to be given away annually in the parish, and to be called Doll Money. Doll is a corruption of dole, Saxon dál (a share distributed).

Dollar Marked thus $, either scutum or 8, a dollar being a "piece of eight" [reals]. The two lines indicate a contraction, as in lb.
   The word is a variant of thaler (Low German, dahler; Danish, daler,) and means "a valley," our dale. The counts of Schlick, at the close of the fifteenth century, extracted from the mines at Joachim's thal (Joachim's valley) silver which they coined into ounce-pieces. These pieces, called Joachim's-thalers, gained such high repute that they became a standard coin. Other coins being made like them were called thalers only. The American dollar equals 100 cents, in English money a little more than four shillings.

Dolly Murrey A character in Crabbe's Borough, who died playing cards.

" `A vole! a vole!' she cried. `'tis fairly won.
This said she, gently, with a single sigh,
Died as one taught and practised how to die."
Crabbe: Borough.

Dolly Shop A shop where rags and refuse are bought and sold. So called from the black doll suspended over it as a sign. Dolly shops are, in reality, no better than unlicensed pawnshops. A black doll used to be the sign hung out to denote the sale of silks and muslins which were fabricated by Indians.